November 29, 1998
Thoughts
on Spiritual Vigilance
The following are short, succinct teachings from the Desert
Fathers on the subject of vigilance, that is, the need always to be guarding one’s
soul against temptation and recognizing that the spiritual life is a constant struggle
from which we cannot rest. They are all from anonymous fathers.
BEGIN:
1. An old man said, "Every evening and every morning a monk ought to render an
account of himself and say to himself, ‘What have we not done of what God does not
want, and what have we done of that which God wills?’ In this way he must live in
repentance. This is what it means to be a monk, and this is how Abba Arsenius used to
live."
2. An old man said, "He who loses gold or silver can find more to replace it, but he
who loses time cannot find more."
3. An old man said, "Just as no one can cause harm to someone who is close to the
king, no more can Satan do anything to us if our souls are close to God, for truly he
said, ‘Draw near to me, and I shall be near to you.’ But since we often exalt
ourselves, the enemy has no difficulty in drawing our poor souls into shameful
passions."
4. An old man said to a brother, "The devil is the enemy and you yourself are the
house. The enemy never stops throwing all that he finds into your house, pouring all sorts
of impurities over it. It is your part not to neglect throwing them outside again. If you
do not do this the house will be filled with all sorts of impurities and you will no
longer be able to get inside. But all that the other begins to throw in, you should throw
out again little by little, and by the grace of Christ your house will remain pure."
5. One of the old men said, "When the eyes of the ox are covered he turns the mill,
but if they are not covered he does not turn it. Even so does the devil. If he succeeds in
covering a man’s eyes he weakens him and leads him to commit all kinds of sin, but if
a man’s eyes are full of light it is easy for him to flee from the devil."
6. An old man said, "Having arisen in the early hours, say to yourself, ‘Body,
you must work to feed yourself; soul, be vigilant in order to receive the
inheritance.’" END
from Sr. Benedicta Ward, "The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers," (Oxford:
SLG Press, 1986), pp. 39-40.
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